Binder Archives - Temporary Services

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oommates, five mangy cats, and a pet turtle that lived in the shower.We walked up the stairs and entered an extremely cluttered, and franklydecrepit living situation. There were mounds of clothing, old mattresses inthe living room, and piles of boxes and crap everywhere. Roger showedus to his bedroom. In extreme contrast to the rest of the apartment it wasclean and very neatly organized. The three of us could barely fit in thetiny room. It was so jammed with stuff that I couldn’t see everything. Hehad shelving units on top of other shelving units and bookcases on top ofbookcases, and a metal bucket on the floor that he stood on to reach thingsthat were perched high up. The overwhelming feature were the bookcasesfilled with Binder Archives of porn - there were over 80 of them.Each binder had a different number on its spine. He had one bookcasefilled entirely with red binders. There were thousands of images – allperfectly arranged. Roger gave us a brief guided tour of his collection.He pointed out important narrative details about each woman. He wasparticularly interested in the idea that each woman’s gradual loss of innocencewas somehow tangible in the photos – that you could observethis progressive loss as they got older and were featured in more magazinesand films. He reflected on the varying lengths of their careers. Healso noted that Black, Asian, and Hispanic women were featured lessprominently in these magazines so he created several binders devoted toraces rather than specific individuals. I only saw about six of the bindersbut you could tell they were all kind of the same. The enormous breastsremained the constant theme throughout every one of these obsessivearchives.Not long after visiting this apartment, Roger and the other tenants wereevicted. They moved away and Roger’s binders moved with them.Despite their narrow subject, the binders represent an enthusiastic andrigorously executed archive. Still, I’m not sure who, other than anotherbig breast fetishist, might be interested in such a project; I immediatelyknew that they were inappropriate for Binder Archives. Unlike the otherbinders that have been realized for this project, Roger’s binders werenever intended for an audience other than himself. Zena and I felt luckyto see them but, truth be told, some archives are probably meant to stayhidden.- Marc Fischer
Presentations of Binder Archives to dateSeptember 2002 through March 20042004:“Cram Session 4: Collective Effort”, Baltimore Museum of Art,Baltimore, MD2003:“Get rid of yourself”, Lothringer dreizehn, Munich, Germany (2003-2004)“Get rid of yourself”, Autonomous Cultural Center, Weimar, Germany“Get rid of yourself”, Halle 14, Leipzig, Germany and in public places.Studio Arts Cafeteria, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay campus, GreenBay, WI“International Arts Group Exposition”, Project Room One, Portland,OR“Shadow Cabinets”, Southern Exposure - Overlook Space, San Francisco,CA2002:“Winter Services”, 6Odum, Chicago, ILMike Wolf’s Apartment, Chicago, ILEllen Rothenberg’s “Text off the Page” Writing Class, School of the ArtInstitute of Chicago, Chicago, ILHarold Washington Library, Chicago, IL
Page 1: BinderArchivesA Portable Exhibition
Page 4 and 5: Above: Binder Archives at 6Odum dur
Page 6 and 7: of an airplane as luggage. The case
Page 8 and 9: Binder Archives at Southern Exposur
Page 10 and 11: “Land,” “Oil,” and “Bush
Page 12 and 13: that was available to him - a Xerox

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